Memory of Light
by booksprout
Summary: Jashin is the son of the Devil, this is his life in Hell before he became a true god. REALLY cheesy first chapter, but please keep reading! prequel to The Dark Road
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jashin sits on the ledge of the cliff that holds his home; looking down at the lowest section of Hell, which is his kingdom. His father had given it to him on his 1400th birthday, 500 years ago. Despite his old age, Jashin still appears to be a boy in his late teens or early twenties. He has thick locks of forever-messy black hair, a thin but strong build, and pure black corneas. His father was a very great demon; he has the highest holding in Hell and is a god compared to the other average demons. Yeah, Jashin's a son of the Devil. Not just his son, but his only son and the Heir to Hell. He had been born of Satan's Jealousy and Greed.

Behind him is his home, carved into the stone; holding a black marble table with black, metal chairs. He doesn't know why he has more than one… people hardly ever visit him, and when they do it's a quick exchange of words; always strictly business. There are three other rooms. The room closest to the entrance, the bedroom Jashin uses when he has… um… _guests_ over; complete with three different whips, several knives, a couple razors, one or two daggers, and a fireplace that was always burning with a brand of Jashin's symbol in the flames, always ready in case someone needed to be branded. The next room was Jashin's studio, where he tampered with animal corpses, taking off a head here and attaching it on to another corpse there, mixing and matching mostly. Across the hall from that is the Servant/Kitchen/Storage Room, full of seemingly lifeless skeletons, hanging from the walls by hooks. Above each one is an iron nameplate; there are several, including one "cook", three "cleaners", a "healer" (but he doesn't need that, he doesn't know why his father makes him keep that useless thing…), and lastly, a living young boy, who was Jashin's apprentice. He, Ben, had been a Jashinist in the world of the living and had found his way into the underworld just to find Jashin and serve him personally. The last real room was Jashin's bedroom, a very bland room with just a bed and a fireplace and a shower in a room connected to his bedroom. And then at the end of the hall was the area whose opposite side opened up, creating the cliff ledge which Jashin now sat upon, watching his dreadful kingdom.

His layer of Hell was where the worst of the worst went; they had had a huge import when Hitler's Gestapo soldiers were being executed back in WWII of First Earth. There are different sections; some for rapists, some for mass murderers, some for those who tortured/tormented people, an "other" section, from which the loudest screams came, and others. Liars, suicides and thieves and such are in the upper layers of Hell. The only two places worse than Jashin's kingdom are Satan's palace and a section of Hell that no demon, not even Satan, knew what's in it or who it was made for. God himself had made that section. No sound came from it and no one ever could see what was inside.

Jashin listens to the sound of thousands of screaming souls rise and fall, and watches the entrance to Hell, watching the new-comers. One catches his eye; it is a young girl. Jashin's kingdom hardly ever gets a female, and when they do get one it's always an adult. Two demons drag the unconscious girl through the entrance and towards the room which determines which part of Jashin's kingdom one was put in. Jashin notices a thin crimson line of blood across her forehead. So they'd removed something from her memory… She looks quite beautiful, with mid-back length black hair, now ruffled up a bit, pale skin, and petite facial features. She's wearing the common garments of the damned; white baggy cotton shorts that go down to the tops of the knees, and a plain cotton shirt. He watched as her thin legs scraped against the rough floor of this layer of Hell as she is being dragged until she disappears into the Judgment Chamber.

Jashin wants to know why she's here; he'll talk to Ben about it later. Ben was Jashin's assistant, sort of like a vice president or assistant coach.

Jashin decides he's hungry, so he rises from his perch and walks into the servant room. He touches the "Cook" with the palm of his right hand, a strange sick green glow comes to life inside of he skull, shining out of the eyes. Cook gets off of the hook he's on and bows down to Jashin, "How may I serve you, Lord Jashin?" bones chattering as he speaks.

"I would like you to fetch me something to eat, preferably something _fresh_. And I'd like a 1760 French bottle."

"As you wish…"

Cook rises from his bow and walks away.

Jashin decides that while he waits he will at least have some fun in his studio. As he opens the door a raven with small ram's horns swoops down and lands on Jashin's shoulder. Jashin smiles and strokes the raven's head, "Hey there Tom, did you miss me?"

Tom screeches in reply.

Tom had been Jashin's first creation; he was one of the few things Jashin had affection for. His father was not one of those; Jashin respected his father and his father respected him. And things worked fine.

Jashin walks to his wall of animal parts and considers what he feels like making today. He picked up a few parts then went to his table and spread them out. After a quarter of an hour or so Jashin set down his finished piece to walk about.

The mouse with chameleon eyes and spider legs looked at him for a second, and then scurried as fast as it could towards the door. Jashin laughed and walked after it to fetch it. It was rather hideous, what with the eyes bulging out of the tiny mouse's head, but he did like the look of the spider legs, so he took it back to his table and took out the chameleon eyes, replacing them with one albino and one black mouse eye. Jashin sets down his creation on the table to appreciate it. The little creature stares at him with its beady eyes, and then scurries to the edge of the table and down the leg. It disappears in an opening in the wall. Jashin holds up his hand by his shoulder for Tom to walk on, and then sets him down on the table. He walks out of his studio to see if Cook is back yet; he is, and is setting the table.

There lay on the platter a strong forearm and beside his plate a bottle of French blood aging back from 1760. Jashin pulls the head chair out from the table; it makes a terrible sound against the unsmooth stone floor. The arm fills Jashin's nostrils with the smell of freshly grilled flesh. Jashin picks off a piece of the arm with his taloned fingers and pops it into his mouth. He can taste the dry flames that cooked the meat, and since only the top layer of meat was cooked (just the way Jashin liked it) he could also taste and feel the blood pouring out of the bit of meat as he bit into it. Although the meat _did_ provide him with both drink and meat, the drink still did not satisfy him because of its low value. He pours the French blood into his crystal goblet.

After he's finished eating, Jashin returns to the cliff's ledge to again watch over his kingdom. The sound of the thousands of suffering souls greatly pleases Jashin.

A few hours later, Jashin sees Ben running across the grounds, from the Prep Room to the stairs that disappear into the wall that led to Jashin's home. Jashin stands and walks to the front door to meet Ben. Ben meets Jashin in the hallway that goes from the top of the stairs to Jashin's front door. There's a thin layer of sweat on his pale brow, his shoulder-length dark brown hair pulled back into a small ponytail, as always.

Out of breath, Ben begins, "J-Jashin, you've gotta come down, come down. We're having some… um… problems with a girl we got earlier today." He starts back to and down the stairs in a brisk walk, closely followed by Jashin who wore a slight frown.

"What's the problem exactly?" Jashin asks. _This had better be worth my time._

"I'm not sure exactly, sure exactly. She's got… I don't know, something; something that protects her from us, from us." Ben has a speech problem.

"…Well? Can you be a little more specific?" Jashin says, irritated.

"I, um, I don't really know. It's like… every time they tried to hurt her, something hurts them."

"What kind of hurt? Did you see any _visible_ damage done to them?"

"Um… I don't really know what kind of hurt… And no, I don't think I saw any visible wounds or anything, or anything."

They arrive at the Prep Room; used to get people ready; mostly just making sure that nothing was lost on their way to Hell and seeing what caused them the most fear and pain.

As Jashin expects, it is the girl he had seen being dragged in earlier. She's sitting against the wall with her legs drawn up to her chest with her face down and arms covering her head.

A demon is throwing a fit trying to hurt her. He punches her and then screams out in pain. "GODDAMMIT! TELL ME WHAT'S PROTECTING YOU, FILTHY LITTLE WITCH!"

The girl's legs are still bloodied up from being dragged, but she doesn't have any bruises from being hit. Jashin doesn't understand it, they had been able to touch her earlier; when dragging her in; why couldn't they get to her now? Jashin approaches her, signaling for the demon to stop trying to hurt her, and kneels down to look at her. She's shaking with fright and is crying silently into her knees. He reaches out to touch her shoulder, and finds that when he touches her, nothing happens. He frowns and pokes her a few times; she flinches and tries to push him away. This irritates Jashin. He lifts his hand and slaps her for her disrespect, but the second his hand touches her, Jashin feels electrifying pain shoot up his arm.

He lets out an involuntary gasp and falls back from the pain. He stares at the girl wide-eyed and looks down at his hand which still burns, but, as Ben said, it gave no visible signs of being hurt. Jashin recognized this pain; he had felt it when he had tried to climb to the surface; this girl is protected by God. Of course, God isn't in Hell; he never helps someone in Hell. So… maybe a ghost of his power stayed with her when she was brought to Hell? But that'd only be possible if God had been protecting her at the time of her death, and that would mean that she doesn't belong in Hell. But a heaven-bound soul can't be forced into Hell…

"Ben, I need to talk to you." Ben follows Jashin out of the room and Jashin shuts the door behind them. "First of all, we _can_ touch her as long as we don't touch her with the intention of hurting her. And I need you to tell me the conditions by which she came to Hell."

Ben thinks for a moment, "er… she had been on the road to Heaven, to Heaven. She was killed, was killed, along with her friends at a high school shooting. Her friends had been bound to, bound to, the path to Hell. On her way to Heaven, your father told her where her friends were, were, and she loved them so much that she made a deal, made a deal, with him where she would take their place in Hell, in Hell. There were three friends, so that's why she was sent, was sent, to your layer of Hell."

_What a stupid girl. _Jashin thinks for a moment, _but at the same time very brave… _ "Get some servants to clean out anything in my guest room that might frighten her." He will lure her into trusting him, and once she did, he'd ask her to surrender all that she had. If she did that of her own free will… She would lose everything that protected her. "Oh, and what's her name?"

"um… Emma; it's Emma. Is that all?"

"No; I noticed she had something removed from her memory; what was it?"

"The memory of ever going to Heaven; her friends; what she did for them."

"Alright; now go."

Ben runs off to find servants to fulfill Jashin's wishes. Jashin himself opens the door and walks back into the room. He walks to the girl who is still sitting with her legs drawn up, but her arms instead of being over head, as like before, are wrapped around her legs as she watches the demon, but switches her attention to Jashin when he walks in. He crouches down, balancing the balls of his feet. "Are you alright?"

Jashin can see the muscles in Emma's arms tense when he speaks.

"It's alright, Emma," he says in a soothing voice. "Tell me, is there anything I can do for you?"

Jashin can feel her confusion; that's a power of a god, sensing emotions. Though he really didn't need it now… Some can go as far as to hear the actual thoughts of others.

Emma's eyes move from Jashin, to the demon, and back again, "could you tell him to go away?" She says in a quiet; broken; wary voice.

It only takes Jashin making eye contact with him for the demon to know he had to leave.

After he's gone, Jashin returns his attention to the girl. He looks at her bloody legs and frowns; he didn't want to clean up the mess that she would make, bleeding all over his house. He reaches his right hand to her legs, she draws back. "It's alright, trust me, I'm just going to heal those scrapes and cuts on your legs. It might hurt a little, but it will be alright." He reaches towards her legs again, and this time she lets him. He puts his right hand over her knee, and slides the palm of his hand down to the ends of her feet, leaving behind not a scratch. Emma is squeezing her arms while he does this, from pain, or maybe distrust. She watches him closely. Jashin moves on to heal the other leg.

"What are you playing at?" she asks accusingly before he's done with the other leg. "When I first got here, everyone was yelling at me and trying to hurt me, even you tried to hit me. Why are you being kind to me now?"

Jashin puts on a warm smile, "It seems there was a mistake when you were being placed. You're going to stay with me until we get things sorted out."

"Then you're just going to send me back here, or some other horrible place?"

"Not that I'm aware of. As I know it, you might not even belong here at all." Jashin lies easily. Sure, some of it is true, but there's no way he's going to let her leave.

Jashin stands and offers his hand to her, "come on; let's get you out of here."

Emma looks at his hand for a moment, uncertain, and then cautiously takes his hand and lets him help her up. But she quickly takes her hand away and holds her arms.

Jashin is tempted to hurt her, but knows he can't and that doing so would make him lose the little trust she had for him. It will all be worth it. To see that look of shock and horror on her face when she realizes what he'd done… And what he would do to her… It gave him goose bumps. He sighs and says again, "come on." as he walks out of the room. The servants should be done cleaning out the guest room by the time Jashin gets there. He can sense her following him, and so continues across the grounds. They make it to the stairs and Jashin looks back to see how she is. She's still pretty weak from her arrival, so she's a little shaky, but other than that; she looks pretty good. Jashin walks up the stairs, and has to walk slower and slower for her to be able to keep up. When they are about halfway up she stops and sits down; dizzy and out of breath. Jashin comes down and moves around her so that he's standing on the step below her. "Would you mind if I picked you up? I don't know if you can make it by yourself and we'd get there faster if I carried you."

She doesn't look at him very long this time before she says, "no, I'll be fine on my own." She stands and turns around and starts walking up. Not even four steps later she stops and sways on the spot she reaches out for the handrail, but there is none. Jashin hurries up and catches her.

She gives him an unkind look, "fine…" she says quietly.

Jashin puts one arm under her upper back and the other under her knees, and picks her up. He walks up the stairs; being careful as to not let her hit the walls. Emma refuses to look at him the rest of the way up. By the time they get to the top of the stairs, her eyes are beginning to droop. And when Jashin carries her into his home and to the guest bedroom, she's not even awake anymore. He lays her down on the bed with the fresh sheets and a comfy feather pillow. He pulled the covers up over her so that she wouldn't get cold. Jashin stands over her and watches her breath calmly into the pillow. He felt strange, he knew he didn't mean any of the kind acts he had displayed to her, but still, he had never before shown anyone such kindness. And it felt… well… _strange._

Jashin leaves the room and shuts the door behind him. He has all this pent-up energy and needs to let it out. "Ben?"

Ben steps out of the servant room, "yes Jashin, Jashin?"

"Go and get me a virgin, will you?"

Ben rolls his eyes, "_fine._" He heads out of the room.

Jashin wasn't very happy because he was going to bloody up his own room instead of the guestroom. He looked into his room to see if there was anything there he could use in replacement of what he had before in the guestroom. He smiles when he finds that his favorite whip, the one made of several wires with metal thorns all up and down it that were made to be heated, which was why all but the handle was in the flames of the hearth; his cat's claw, a rake with sharpened ends; and shackles bolted to the wall at just the right height so that they girl would have to stand on her toes in order for the shackles to not dig into her flesh, which they would anyways. They even put in his brand, which was a circle with an even triangle in it, touching the edges of the circle, in the fireplace.

In not too much time, Ben comes walking in with a beautiful young blond who is smiling and laughing lightly as she talks with Ben. When she looks up to see who is standing before her, her facial expression changes drastically. "_Oh God, no!_" She cries when she sees Jashin smiling at her with his sharp teeth and greedy eyes, taking in her body. "Jenifer told me about you! Sh-she told me what you did to-!" While she cries out she's trying to back away from Jashin, but Ben holds onto her. "L-let go of me!" she yells at Ben. She hits him hard so that he lets her go and starts to run towards the door but is stopped by Jashin as he grabs her wrist. He twists her arm and puts it against her back, having her back against him. He wraps his other arm around her waist and holds her close, roughly kissing the back of her neck.

"Good riddance," says Ben and leaves the room.

The girl is crying now, whimpering in a small voice, "Oh please God… Oh please help me… I'm so sorry, just please help me…"

Jashin sickly grins and whispers into her ear, "You'd better start praying to another god, girlie, because that one's not going to help or hear you down here…"

She screams and fights against him, trying to break his grip, but he's inhumanly strong and so easily keeps hold of her. He pushes her into his room and follows close behind, shutting and bolting the door behind him.

It's a good thing Emma's totally out of it.

Oooh, did you catch that the boy, Ben, is the servant who's also in The Dark Road?

The story begins with a little history, you meet the characters, and soon the story will be put into action.

Read and Review please! :)


	2. Chapter 2

WARNING: there is a scene in the actual bowels of Hell, very gruesome and disturbing.

Chapter 2

Jashin wakes early to shower and have the cleaning servants clean up his room. There's blood splattered all over; the girl is hanging from the bolted shackles, stripes and bruises all over her body. And over her heart is Jashin's mark. She's unconscious now; she had a long night. He also has them take the weapons out of his room and put them into the Storage (Servant) Room.

Emma comes out of her room when the Cleaners are walking back into the Servant Room. She sits down at the table opposite of Jashin, who's picking at brain bake. She turns a certain shade of pale green when she sees him pop a bit of brain into his mouth while watching her for her reaction. He smiles. "Hungry?"

Emma shakes her head, "No… I was… but I'm a vegetarian."

Jashin coughs from laughing while swallowing. Still chuckling, he says, "Are you serious?..."

Emma's face turns pink, "yeah… It's disgusting to eat a corpse."

"… I guess I can understand that, but would you eat sausages or anything?"

"No, I don't' care if it's human or not; eating a corpse is eating a corpse."

Jashin raises an eyebrow. "… Cook?"

Cook peeks out from the Servant Room, "Yes, Lord Jashin?"

"Could you find something for my friend here to eat? Apparently she's a vegetarian."

Cook stands silently, maybe if he had flesh he would frown. "I apologize, Lord Jashin, but I'm not capable of that. May I suggest you send Ben?"

Jashin sighs; he forgot; the dead cannot walk the earth. But Cook was right; Ben could go because he technically wasn't dead. "Ben?"

Ben pushes past Cook, "_Yes_ Jashin?" He isn't very happy with all the noise Jashin made last night. He hadn't gotten much sleep.

Jashin glares at him warningly, "Could you go to the surface and get some fruit or something for Emma?"

Ben frowns. Still a young boy, he becomes easily jealous of Emma. Jashin had never let him go to the surface till now, and now it was just for some _girl_, "Fine." Ben says venomously, he walks out of the room, sulking.

Emma is trying to be as small as possible; apparently she doesn't like all of this attention. Emma looks out over the cliff; she looks uncertain; fearful; depressed. "How can you stand living here?... It's absolutely dreadful…"

Jashin raises an eyebrow. "…well… I grew up here; it's what I'm used to."

The spider-mouse Jashin made yesterday crawls over to and up Emma's leg. She laughs for the first time; it tickles. She holds it in her hands to look at it. Smiling, she says, "It's adorable. I didn't know there were things like this down here."

_Adorable?_ "I made him. I make a lot of things… Of course I don't make the material myself, that's out of my league, but I put it together."

Emma thoughtfully pets the creature's small head, "could you show me how and where you make them?"

"…Sure, you might not like it though. It's just a bunch of dead animal parts until I bring it to life."

Emma picks up the creature by its tail; its legs claw out viciously as it squirms to break free. She sets it down on the floor and it scurries away. "I'd still like to see it…"

"Would you like to see it now?"

"Sure."

Jashin stands up and leads her to his studio. When they walk in Tom swoops down and lands on Jashin's shoulder. Emma jumps when this happens, "What's that?"

"Tom: another one of my creations. You can touch him if you want to."

Emma cautiously holds her finger up to Tom; he nips at her finger playfully. She smiles and strokes Tom's head.

Jashin gets that weird feeling again. He'd never shared his studio with anyone else before… nobody had ever cared. He doesn't like this feeling. It doesn't feel…_ natural_. He's again tempted to hurt Emma to get rid of the feeling, but again knows that it wouldn't work and that doing so would make him lose her trust.

Jashin continues into the room; Emma follows, just now seeing the shelf-covered wall filled with animal parts. Jashin stands by the wall of animal parts, "Well, I take whatever parts I want to from here," he begins, gesturing at the shelves. "And then I take them to my table," gesturing at table that holds a few knives. "And I put the parts together however I want to."

Emma walks further into the room and scans the shelves. Jashin feels a little uneasy, as mentioned before, he's never shared his work or workplace with anyone before. And now here was this girl, judging him. _This is stupid. Why do I care what she thinks? She's just another wench damned to Hell._

Emma speaks, jerking Jashin out of his thoughts, "Could I help you make something? …or rather would you help me make something?"

Jashin just looks at her for a second, then comes back to, "I guess …do you mean now?"

"Yeah," She says with a smile. "Thanks."

What the fuck is wrong with this girl? Yesterday she was bitching continuously, and now she's all-smiles.

"Well… just pick out what parts you want to put together."

Emma apparently already decided what she wanted to make, because now she goes straight to the shelf and picks out a few pieces; The upper half of a small monkey, about 7 inches tall without anything from the waist, down, the body (without the head) of a large snake, and a small set of snakes' teeth. She sets then down at the table where Jashin's waiting. He fits the small mammal's body to the snake's; and the teeth into the mammal's mouth. It takes him several minutes to seal them together, and then it takes him another dozen minutes to put a soul into the body; giving it life.

Jashin sets down the newborn creature. It goes over to Emma; slithering and crawling. It comes to her leg and takes a hold of her ankle. It spirals around her leg as it climbs with its small hands. Emma smiles and offers it her arm; it wraps itself around her arm with its head above her shoulder, and starts tugging at her hair. Emma laughs and takes its hand to make it stop.

Jashin watches, it feels strange to see one of his creations interacting with her. He isn't used to sharing things; after all, he _was_ born of jealousy and greed. Emma looks up to meet his gaze, Jashin, horrified for a split second for being caught looking at her, looks down. He gets angry with himself then. He tells himself that she's just some stupid girl. He was with girls all the time; sure he was always raping and torturing them at the time, but still…

He couldn't hurt this one, not yet anyways; maybe that's why he's at loss at what to do around her. Yes, that's got to be it. He's just not used to interacting with people nonviolently. Well, except for with Ben. But he's a servant; he doesn't count.

"You can keep it if you want to," Jashin says to break the silence.

"Oh, thanks."

"You can name it too, if you like."

Emma watches it play with her hand for awhile, before saying, "I think I'll name him Billy."

"Alright," Jashin says stupidly. He frets with one of the knives, cutting his finger over and over again, letting it heal in a second between each cut.

"Stop that," says Emma.

"What? It just heals itself anyways… So what does it matter?"

"Well it still hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but I can take it."

"Why do that if it isn't necessary?"

"Well, when _would_ it be necessary?"

"Never; so don't do it."

Jashin again gets that urge to hurt her, but it goes away sooner this time. "Whatever." But still; he stops.

An awkward silence comes over the room.

After a couple minutes, Ben's head pops into the room. "I'm back, back. The food, food's on the table," he says grumpily, and then leaves.

"Thanks," says Emma.

She walks out of the room with Billy, who's around her upper arm and neck, pinching and poking her ear, leaving Jashin alone; feeling like a complete idiot. He angrily takes the knife and slashes his wrist open, spurting black blood all over the floor. He grits his teeth as the wound painfully heals itself. Tom, worried, nips Jashin's hand. "I'm sorry Tom; I just don't know what to do with her." He takes a big breath in, and then releases it. "Alright, see you later," Jashin says, stroking the bird over the head and down the back. He walks out of the room.

Emma is sitting at the table, feeding Billy a grape.

"Ben got that for you, aren't you going to eat any of it?"

"Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to see if Billy would, could, eat."

Jashin shrugs it off and sits down at the opposite end of the table. He watches as Emma picks up and bites into an apple. Emma wipes the juice off her face, looking at Jashin, "Why are you watching me?" She asks.

"I don't' know… I guess I just haven't seen someone eat food like that before. Would you mind if I tried some?" _What do I mean 'would you mind'? It's __my__ food technically anyways._ Jashin reaches forward and takes a peach and bites into it. He chews for a couple seconds, but then spits it out. "It's disgusting…"

"How can you say this is disgusting? I mean, you're the one who eats _flesh!_"

"Flesh is perfectly good. It at least has _something_ to chew. Not to mention it's got a wonderful taste and the blood is just the right thickness. _This_ is nasty; it's far too sweet, like candy. I hate sweet things. And the juice is way to thin and runny; it tastes and feels cheap."

"Whatever… I guess we just like different things. That's alright."

Jashin feels stupid again; for arguing about something so insignificant. He gets up from the table, "Go ahead and eat; I'll be back after awhile." Emma watches him as he walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him. Jashin walks down the hallway and goes down the long stairway. After he reaches the bottom he starts across the span of open space to the part of his region where it got its reputation from. Daemon, the head guard of Jashin's kingdom, stood at his usual post holding his Roman spear at the charred black iron gates. Daemon waits till Jashin is a few yards from the gate before he opens it.

Jashin does enjoy watching over his kingdom from his home, but he also likes to take strolls through it as one would through a park on a nice day. The doors bang shut behind him as he walks in. The part where people are actually hurt is enclosed by a twenty-foot-high wall which is covered in fiery thorny vines. In the first cell he walks by is a fat man who is being flogged with a whip that has glass fastened to the split ends of the leather rope. He is tied to a burning wooden pole by his wrists which are high above him. He tries to keep from falling onto the pole every time the glass flies across his back, though his hands are already forever burning; which is worse than one might think; In Hell, one never gets _'used'_ to pain. And it never hurts any less, and every time one gets hurt, it painfully heals so that one may be hurt some more. That is, unless the one hurting them wants the wounds to remain.

In the next cell a man is being raped with a sword breaker. Two guards hold him in place as a third shoves it up his hole over and over again.

The next cell isn't really a cell, but more of a large box with thick, glass one-way mirror walls. Inside is a woman being continuously eaten alive by hundreds of rats. She screams and bangs her fists against the walls, not seeing outside because of the mirrors but hoping that _someone_ must be outside. There had to be _someone_ who would help her. Not. She fights to keep the rats away from her face, but several weigh her down by hanging in her hair and cause her to stumble back and fall into the mass of squirming bodies. Her screams become much shriller as she sobs loudly.

Jashin keeps walking.

In the next cell there's a woman and three demons; one being in the form of a man, probably in the form of her husband. Each of the normal demons holds one of her arms and one of her legs, keeping them apart. The demon in the form of her husband shoves a chainsaw up her vagina over and over again. The woman is crying out in pain with tears of pain and fear running down her cheeks, she struggles madly against the two demons while begging her husband to please, please stop.

Across from that cell is a young boy being flogged with the whip that Jashin invented; the one made of wire with burning metal thorns covering it. He is facing the stone wall, being held in place by shackles bolted to the wall. His back is bloody raw and the whip just keeps digging deeper and deeper.

Jashin keeps walking through the labyrinth that is his kingdom. The farther in he goes; the more terrible the punishments are. After several hours Jashin stops and sighs; it just isn't as fun as it used to be. Or maybe he is just starting to get bored of it all. He'd have to think of something to add to their punishments. The screams are starting to get annoying, so Jashin blocks out all sound so that he is walking back to the gate in complete silence.

Daemon opens the door for Jashin, "Leaving so soon?" He asks, but isn't heard.

It takes Jashin another quarter of an hour to walk across the grounds and up those damn God-forsaken stairs to get back to his home.

Jashin is worried when he doesn't see Emma at the table. He walks into the room and looks around just to make sure she isn't in a corner where he can't see her from the main door. He walks down the hallway, looking from room to room. She isn't in his studio… and she wouldn't be in the Servant Room or his bedroom; those are locked when not being used. Jashin peeks into the Guest Bedroom. Emma's curled up on the bed, hugging herself as she sleeps without a calm expression on her face. Jashin stands in the doorway and watches her breathe. Billy is under the bed with his tail curled up beneath him, head resting on his folded arms. A tear escapes her clenched-shut eye and she curls up more and holds herself tighter. Is she having a bad dream? Jashin wonders if she was used to someone holding her while she lay when she was alive. He wonders how she lived her life, and what kind of friends she had for her to pay such a great price for them.

After awhile Jashin quietly shuts the door and heads to his studio. He feels like making something.

Oh, you silly vegetarians…

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	3. Chapter 3

Gaaaaah, I know it's lame and boring for the first bit =_=

Chapter 3

Jashin showers to get the smell of blood and corpse off of him before he goes to bed.

In the morning he wakes much later than usual, but feels much more refreshed in the morning because of it. He walks out into the hallway and peeks inside Emma's room. No; _the Guest Room._ She isn't in there, and neither is Billy. But she did make her-, no, _the_ bed. Jashin walks into the end room, and Emma's not there either. And neither is any of the food. Had she eaten all of it already?

Jashin starts his way back down the hall, looking from one room to the next. He finds her in the Kitchen (Servant Room) cutting up strawberries into small pieces. Beside her is a loaf of bread with a few slices cut off. Wrapped around her right arm is Billy, who is looking at the food hungrily. Emma gives him a small piece of strawberry, which he takes and eats greedily. Jashin looks from her to the instruments of torture with anxiety; had she seen them? They were in the dark corner… but what if she did? He waves his hand in the direction of the instruments and they disappear.

"What're you-" Jashin begins, but stops when Emma holds her index finger to her lips to signal for silence. She gestures towards the upper right-hand corner, to Ben's bed, Ben's sleeping. Jashin is a little annoyed but not that much. He walks over to Emma and says in a quiet voice, "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making something to eat." _She doesn't seem at all like the girl I saw holding herself and crying last night._

Jashin wants to ask what exactly she's making, but decides to watch to find out himself instead. Jashin watches over her shoulder as she continues to cut up the two strawberries into smaller and smaller pieces. Then she turns the knife onto the side and crushes the pieces with the flat of the blade. She takes one of the pieces of bread and puts it just below the edge of the counter and slides the crushed fruit onto the bread. "So is that supposed to be bread and jam?"

"It _is_ bread and jam." She looks up at him, "You didn't tell me you had bread. I _do_ eat bread you know."

"I forgot."

"I know what you'll probably say, but do you want some?"

"I'm assuming you guessed correctly, because I'm saying no thank-you." Jashin finishes with a small smile.

Emma smiles back and cleans up the mess she made; putting everything back where it belongs. Then she walks out of the Kitchen (Servant Room) and into the Dining room. She looks out through the open wall into Hell, and apparently changes her mind about where she wants to eat and turns around and goes down the hallway and into her room. Jashin watches her do all of this from the doorway of the Servant Room.

Jashin walks to the entryway of her room, "Is it the sight and sound of that place down there that disturbs you so?"

Emma is feeding Billy a piece of the bread and jam that she broke off, "Yeah, I don't see how you can stand it; living up here."

"I can block off the sound if you want me to," Jashin says. "And I can have a curtain or something put up over the opening so that you don't have to see it."

Emma looks up and smiles gratefully, "thanks, that'd be really great." She looks back down at Billy who's tugging on her shirt and resumes eating with him. When she realizes that Jashin is still standing there she looks up, slightly pink. "Yes?"

"I would like to show you something I think you'll like. I'll show it to you after you're done eating." Jashin says.

"…alright. I'll tell you when I'm done," She says, indicating for him to leave by the way she says it.

Jashin gets the hint and walks out of her room. He goes into the Servant Room and awakens one of the Cleaning servants.

"How may I serve you, Lord Jashin?"

"Go and find a curtain big enough to cover the lost wall in the Dining Room and cover it."

"Yes, Lord Jashin." He runs off, bony feet clicking against the stone ground.

Jashin goes into the Dining Room and raises his hands up to the opening. He murmurs under his breath in an ancient language; casting a spell over the room, and the whole home, that would block out sound from outside. When he finishes he turns around to find Emma watching him with interest from the entryway, holding Billy.

"You ready to go already?"

"Yeah," she says.

"Alright, you'd better leave him here," Jashin says, gesturing at Billy. "Wouldn't want to lose him, would we?"

Emma puts Billy into her room, and shuts the door behind her. Jashin walks past her and opens the main door for her, "Come on, let's go." He says, waiting for her to go first. She walks through and he follows, shutting the door behind them.

Jashin leads them down the hallway, but instead of turning left to go down the stairs, he turns right and leads them down a very long hallway. Several minutes of silence later, they come to a wooden door. Jashin, smiling now, looks back to make sure that she's still there. He opens the door, letting light into a dim room, revealing a floor made up of many small pebbles. He takes her hand and leads her in, shutting the thick door behind them, throwing them into total darkness.

"Wha-"

"Sh," whispers Jashin. "It's coming."

There's no sound except for their breathing and several small thing scuttling around on the ground. Emma holds Jashin's hand tighter. Then a faint glow starts a few yards away, coming from a large pale blue crystal. Then another begins to glow, and another, and another, until the whole place is lit dimly by these hundreds of crystals. The pebbles cover the entire ground with exceptions to large, monstrous grey stone trees leading up to an unseen ceiling and small, wooden mushrooms ranging in size from an inch to two feet high. The crystals come out of the ground, and hanging from the dead-looking tree limbs like strange fruit, about a foot long and five inches wide, all glowing a little brighter now. The things that were scuttling around are many small, pearly white spider crabs, which are now hiding in the darker places, but still are seen easily due to their color.

"I-It's…" Emma begins, stepping forward, but doesn't know how to finish.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes," Emma says, still awed. "Very beautiful… Breathtaking..."

"It's alright for you to walk around, if you want to."

Emma takes another cautious step forward, and then continues into the room. The small, smooth pebbles feel so cool against her bare feet… She walks up to one of the larger stone trees, about seven feet thick, and touches the smooth trunk, looking up into its branches.

Jashin sits down and watches her with a small smile.

She touches one of the crystals coming out of the ground, "They're so warm…"

"They're crystallized animal spirits. If you hold your ear up to it you can hear and feel the heartbeat."

Emma kneels and holds her ear up to the crystal. The light from the crystal lights up half of her face pale green, making the other half look darker. She smiles and shuts her eyes when she hears and feels the slow, steady pulse against the side of her face.

Jashin wants to be there with her, to share the experience with her personally. But he doesn't know what to do…

She looks so incredibly peaceful… Jashin wondered what it felt like to be at such peace. Emma looks up, "What's the history of this place?" She doesn't seem to have noticed him staring at her; good.

"Well… It happened quite awhile ago… There had been a huge build-up of animal spirits in the storage area of Hell. Dad wasn't too happy about how much space they were taking up, so he gave them all to me. I planted them into the ground, and gave them life, so they grew into all of the trees you see here. This place will not stop growing as long as the worlds live on to provide the spirits…"

She's looking at him blankly.

"What?"

"You_ made_ this place?" She says, that blank look now revealing itself to be awe.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I don't come here and plant animal spirits every time an animal dies… I made a system so that the souls automatically go into the new ground as this place expands to make room for all of the newcomers."

Emma looks down as one of the pearly white crabs peeks out from underneath a mushroom but quickly disappears again. "What's with the crabs then?"

Jashin takes this chance to walk down to her. He kneels down and pulls the crab out from under the wooden mushroom. He holds it out for her to see, "These are spirits of life and goodness, for some reason they don't crystallize, but instead materialize into the form of these crabs. I don't know why crabs and I don't know for sure why they're all white. Probably because their hearts are pure…"

Emma smiles a little as she moves her finger over the crab's pearl-smooth back, "That sounded so beautiful… what you just said. It sounded like something that should be in a book."

Jashin is pleased that she thinks so, but doesn't show it. He shrugs, "I guess."

Emma raises an eyebrow at him as if saying "uh huh, sure."

Jashin can't suppress a caught-in-the-act grin. He looks down at the crab as she cups her hands underneath it to pick it up; her hands feel so smooth and warm against his… She sets the crab down and they watch it as it scurries away.

Emma stands, and Jashin with her. She looks up into the tree she's still in front of, "Would it be alright for me to climb these trees, or are they hallow or something?"

"Yeah, it's alright."

Emma grins like a child, "Awesome." She backs up a bit, and then runs and jumps to catch hold of one of the lower branches, about 5 foot off the ground, but very thick. She's hanging onto it, but just barely. She's starting to slip off of it and is fighting to keep hold of it. Jashin laughs at her helplessness. He pushes her up onto the branch. "Thanks," Emma says, sounding flustered.

Jashin jumps a good two feet into the air and pulls himself up onto the same branch. He stands, using another branch to keep balance, "Come on, I've done this before. It looks amazing from the top." Jashin says smiling, offering her his hand. She smiles back and takes his hand, letting him help her to her feet. She's a little unsteady, but Jashin keeps her standing.

"Here, you go up before me; I'll catch you if you slip." Jashin says.

"Alright," Emma starts climbing up the tree, and Jashin follows close behind her. They climb higher and higher, all the way to the top. Jashin helps her get settled on a branch and then sits beside her. Emma's looking at the world below her; she's taken aback by the beauty of it all. She feels like she's in space, surrounded by millions of ghostly stars.

Then she looks down.

She gasps and grabs Jashin's arm. Jashin is humored by her fright and grins, "Afraid of heights?"

"Yeah," she says, trying to sound normal but failing to hold back the fear from her voice. She doesn't let go of Jashin's arm.

Jashin's grin turns into a friendly smile, "That's alright, a lot of people are afraid of heights. I would know; some people here are at great heights when being tortured because of it."

Not the right thing to say.

Emma lets go of his arm and holds her elbows. She becomes quite blank and silent, not looking at him.

_Dammit, why did I tell her that?_ "But you don't have to worry about that. I'm pretty sure you'll be out of here in a few more days." Jashin both does and doesn't want his words to be true. He doesn't want her to leave because he would miss her and he doesn't want her to stay because he isn't sure if he wants to hurt her. _Bah, who am I kidding? She's just an idiotic girl… right?.._

"Don't lie to me. Just how long has it been since the last person got out of here?" She demands, burying her own hope.

Jashin tries to think, there was one man once… but that had been before he was born… then he remembers, "There was one man, about 2,000 years ago."

"Just one? Who was he?" She has a faint suspicion of who it is and she hopes it isn't correct.

Jashin knows who it is, but is reluctant to tell her because her suspicion is right. "It was before I was born, so I wouldn't know."

She looks down without actually seeing; she knows her suspicion is correct. "So was it Jesus?"

"…yeah. But think; if He's on your side, then there's no way you'll have to stay here."

"Why would He be on my side?"

Jashin had forgotten; her memory of her life was gone. She probably doesn't even remember the surface. She just has the knowledge that any has; the knowledge of God and the Devil, and the knowledge that they're a sinner. She probably doesn't even understand that she's being protected. He can't tell her about the force of God protecting her, because then she might grasp that power and run with it, making an escape out of Hell.

"I don't know; I don't' know what I was thinking." Jashin says, pretending to sound confused.

Emma looks away from him again, looking down at the ground this time. "Why are you playing with me? Why not just throw me back into Hell? Or do you want to hurt me yourself?"

Jashin looks at her sadly, "Listen, everything's going to be alright. You'll get out of here."

Emma's staring down at the branches, ranging from the top to the bottom, a few hundred feet below them. Jashin can feel her pain, it's leaking out into the air around her like a poisonous gas. Suddenly Emma pushes herself off the branch, and falls, hitting branches on her way down. Jashin takes action the second she leaves his side; he dives off the branch, kicking the branches behind him to increase his speed. He avoids the branches, and so reaches her a hundred feet before the ground. He wraps his arms around her, and turns so his back is to the ground to cushion the impact for Emma.

They hit the ground with a nasty crunch coming from Jashin. Both of them get the air taken away from their lungs. Jashin has his teeth and right fist clenched from the pain; his landed on his left hand, breaking multiple bones. And that's just his hand. The back of his skull is cracked open and several of his ribs stick up out of his chest. His legs are broken and his left shoulder is dislocated.

Emma rolls off of him, onto her knees, getting the air back. There are tears pouring down her face "_Why did you do that?_ Look at you!" She's sobbing unevenly from anger and sadness as she speaks, "Jashin? Please… are you going to be okay?" She says putting her hand on his right shoulder.

Jashin realizes that someone actually cares about him for the very first time. He is reminded of his childhood, being beaten and raped by his father; he could've used a friend then… Jashin doesn't respond for several more seconds, he gasps and groans as his body heals itself. He sits up finally; breathing heavily and seeing the world come in and out of focus, "Don't do that… If you succeed to kill yourself in this layer of Hell, you'll just be sent to the next worse layer… I won't be able to protect you if you leave here."

Tears continue to roll down her face; she lunges forward and takes him in a tight embrace, "I'm so sorry… But please… you've got to let me go… I-…I really like you. And I don't want to be here long enough for you to hurt me… That would hurt me more in a way you wouldn't know than it would hurt me physically."

Jashin gets angry and grabs her upper arms, "EMMA! Can you not hear what I'm saying? Nothing is worse than the next layer of Hell! It's my fa-… It's Satan's palace! You cannot imagine what he could do to you!" Emma is sobbing harder, hiding her face behind her hands. "If you kill yourself… You'll forfeit your chance to get out of here. A suicide soul is a damned soul; don't do it." Jashin can't tell if he means what he's saying or not. "Listen; I'm not going to throw you back into Hell, and I promise I won't hurt you. When I told you that you don't belong here, I meant it. We're going to get you out of here just as soon as we can. As I said, it's going to take a few more days. There are many things that need to be done before you leave, for one we need to find a living person to guide you to the surface, where God will be waiting for you. We also need to find a safe opening for you to go through… That part might actually take a bit longer." It hurts him now more than ever to lie to her about something like that, and he again finds himself wishing that she wouldn't have to go back. But she has to; it is the way Hell works.

"I'm sorry… I promise I won't try to kill myself… Do you promise not to hurt me?"

The question stabs at Jashin's chest; impaling his heart. "Yeah… yeah I promise."

Emma leans forward and hugs him again, holding him she says, "I'm so, so sorry Jashin… I find that I must ask you to promise me one more thing…"

"What?"

"Do you promise not to do something stupid like that again… I never want to see you in pain again..."

Jashin smiles a little, "yeah, I promise… but only so long as you don't do something stupid like what you did again. I don't want to see you hurt either." Jashin squeezes her a little and then they let go of each other. Jashin's heart is screaming at him in confusion; he can't stand these lies he's telling her; he wants to believe what he's saying so badly.

Jashin stands up and offers her his hand.

Emma is reminded of when he offered his hand back when she was in that room with the demon… She trusts him so much more now. She takes his hand and he helps her to her feet.

Yeeeeaahhhh…. I know it's kinda-sorta-maybe-… really cheesy. Deal with it.

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	4. Chapter 4

It's a really short one, I know.

Chapter Four

When they get back, the curtain is put up; so Emma doesn't have any problems with the structure any more. …for the time being. She spends a lot of the day sitting on the floor of her room, playing with Billy. She would like to go back to the place with the stone trees and crystals… but she knows that Jashin doesn't trust her to be by herself and, anyways, he has business to attend to.

She strokes a finger down Billy's head and back thoughtfully. Jashin had said that he used human souls to bring these creations to life… Billy is always trying to please her and is as sweet as can be; she wonders if it's the soul of a child… Or were the souls just batteries; powering the body but not effecting the personality. In which case Billy was like a new-born. Did he think of her as his mother? …if he had a human soul, would that mean that he could understand language?

"…Billy?"

Billy remains still, apparently asleep. She smiles; he is just like a dog; hyper for a little while but usually fast asleep. Watching him sleep soundly makes her realize how tired she is as well… It had been a rather long day, and all the excitement just made it more exhausting.

She moves her pillow to the edge so Billy has room and then she crawls into bed and curls up; despite the fact that she's in Hell, alleged place of eternal flames, she still gets pretty cold. She gets sleepier and sleepier as her body heat spreads into the bed and keeps her warm. A little while before she falls asleep, she feels something cold against her. She peaks to see that Billy is curled up against her stomach; apparently also cold. She smiles and soon drifts to sleep.

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	5. Chapter 5

Even shorter than Chapter Four :O

Chapter Five

Jashin finally returns several hours after Emma fell asleep. He's utterly worn out; Hell had been really busy day today; there were problems with a demon who didn't want to work and a man who wouldn't show what he feared the most, and so on and so forth. He isn't surprised to see that Emma's not in the Dining room; she was still a new-comer and so would be easily tired for some number of days. He cracks the door open and peaks inside; he can tell Emma's asleep even though she doesn't look it… She's clutching the pillow with white hands and tears stream down her face as her mouth is wide open in a silent scream.

Jashin feels frozen where he stands; he wants to comfort her; but he isn't sure of what exactly to do. She curls up tighter as her mouth remains open as far as it will go. He walks to her side and holds one of her hands; it clutches onto his, cutting of circulation, but at least she looks a little calmer. He slips into bed beside her, keeping her hand in his and lies down so that she's against him and his arm is over her while she still holds onto it, but not so tightly now. She slowly breathes more and more normally… He holds her for the rest of the night, falling asleep after a few more hours. She feels so warm…

Aww, warm fuzzies.

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	6. Chapter 6

Second shortest chapter

Chapter Six

Emma wakes up, feeling more at home/comfortable than ever before. She thinks that it's Billy that's against her, but then she realizes that Billy is still against her stomach. She tries to remain calm as she peaks over her shoulder; Jashin is fast asleep with a hanging-open mouth and an arm limp on her side. She calms down considerably. She considers getting out of bed, but she doesn't want to wake him; and anyways… it wasn't like she didn't like the contact… She takes his hand and hugs it while she drifts back into a dream-like sleep.

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	7. Chapter 7

Don't get too hopeful :P

Chapter Seven

The next time Emma wakes up, Jashin is gone. She's a little disappointed, but not too much because now she can get out of bed without worrying of waking him, and also because she knows that he is generally busy.

After she gets out of bed, she realizes that Billy is gone. She peaks under the bed and glances around the room; but he's no where to be seen. She looks in the Dining Room, under the tables and chairs and in all of the corners, but he isn't there either.

When she looks into the Servant Room she sees Ben is on his hands and knees reaching under his bed with a hand wielding a sharp knife. Billy is backed up against the wall and looks around for an escape. Emma gasps, "Billy!"

Billy sees her and darts out from under the bed and runs up her leg and rests hanging on her back, peaking over at Ben. Ben stands up and glares with eyes watering from a bite-mark on his nose, "keep, keep that little freak out of here, of here!"

Even though he's barely 5 feet tall and is younger than her, Emma still feels afraid of the boy clenching a knife and glaring at her viciously. "I'm sorry, I'm sure he didn't mean any harm! And what were you doing trying to _kill_ him like that?"

Ben's hand holding the knife starts shaking from squeezing the handle so hard, holding back violent anger. "He bit me, bit me, for no reason! He shouldn't even be, even be here! He has _no right_, _no right_, to even be here! I've been here far longer, far longer, than either of you! NOW GET THE FUCK OUT BEFORE I KILL THE BOTH OF YOU!"

Emma is surprised by his sudden outburst and quickly and quietly shuts the door and retreats to her room. She sets Billy down on the bed.

"Billy, can you understand me?"

Billy keeps eye contact with her.

"We really made that boy mad, so we're going to stay away from him for awhile, alright?"

Billy continues to keep eye contact with her.

"Please stay in our room, okay? That boy could very well hurt you if he sees you again, but I'm sure he won't come in here." She scratches the spot behind his left ear, "M-kay?"

Billy nips at her finger affectionately and slithers/crawls underneath the covers. Emma watches the blanket rise and fall as he breathes calmly.

Would Ben really kill them? He certainly acted like it, but he looked so young, Emma couldn't imagine him hurting anyone… at least not till now. She considers telling Jashin, but knows that would make Ben madder and doesn't want to get deeper into his bad side. And Jashin's pretty busy anyways… And she doesn't want to worry him. Ben's pretty small… she could probably take him on.

Emma walks out of her room and shuts the door carefully behind her to make sure that Billy keeps his word. She glances at the door to the Servant Room to make sure it's shut and quiet, and then walks out of the home and returns to the forest of stone trees and crystals. After she shuts the door behind her she waits for the few seconds necessary for the crystals to light up.

She spends several hours watching the crabs scurry around and catches one or two and studies them. They're pretty heavy… she wonders if they're actually made of pure pearl the same way the trees are made of pure stone.

She taps on one of the mushrooms and finds that they're made of a very soft wood. She thinks back to when Jashin was explaining the place and can't remember if he had said anything about the mushrooms. She walks around for a long time, looking for the tallest tree. And when she finds one that she decides is good enough, she climbs up it and just sits on the uppermost branches for quite awhile, just enjoying the clean, cool air and sight of the unlimited number of light blue crystals…

She stays there quite awhile until she starts to feel kind of dizzy and realizes that she hasn't eaten since when she woke up yesterday.

It takes her awhile to get back to the wooden door, but once she's there it's quick work to get the rest of the way to Jashin's home.

She cautiously walks inside to find the place to be completely silent and barren. She peaks into the Kitchen/Servant Room to make sure that Ben isn't there before entering.

She rummages around in the cupboards looking for some bread that isn't moldy since all the fruit is gone. She's looking in the lower cupboards when a shadow blocks the light, preventing her from seeing what's inside. As she turns around Ben grabs her wrist with such a strength that no child should hold. "_I told you to not come in here_." He growls.

"I was just looking for so-"

Ben cries out in pain when Billy bites through his left Achilles tendon. He turns eyes ablaze, and stomps down on Billy's head, killing him. Emma gasps as tears come to her eyes and she punches Ben hard across the face. Ben twists her wrist which is still restrained; spraining it; Emma tries to repress a muffled sound of pain. Ben raises his foot and kicks her hard in the stomach, causing her to fall back onto the floor. He sits on her stomach and repeatedly punches her in the face. Emma tries to block the blows and push him off of her but even though he's a child, he still holds inhuman strength.

Ben suddenly is yanked back and shoved up against the wall by his neck, "_what the fuck are you doing_?" Jashin demands harshly.

For the first time, Emma sees fear in Ben's eyes as he says, "I-I-… it was-… Emma-…"

Jashin throws Ben across the room so that he hits the stone wall beside the door, hard. "_Get out of here. Now_."

Ben tries to prevent it but he can't stop his face from screwing up as he tries not to cry. It just isn't fair. He had been here far longer than Emma, he had done nothing but served Jashin, he had never fought against him, he had come down to Hell, leaving the human world, just to serve him… And now Jashin would rather have this… this… _girl_. She had only been around for a few days and already Jashin cared for only her. Ben clenches his fists; he was going to get back at her if it was the last thing he'd ever do… He runs out of the room and out of Jashin's kingdom.

Jashin turns to face Emma, "Emma? Are you okay?"

One of Emma's eyes is swollen shut and she's got a bloody nose and lip, she tries to hide her face from Jashin so he won't think she's ugly as she tries to hold back the tears that want to come so bad. Jashin crouches down beside her and gently lays a hand on one of her arms that is covering her face, "Emma…? Come on. You're safe now. Please let me see you…"

Emma shakes her head "no" without letting her face being seen, "By pace… Ib's ugly… and Billy…"

It's difficult to understand her through all the blood, but Jashin manages to get most of it. "Emma, please, I can heal you, you'll be fine…"

Emma shakes her head again, but doesn't say anything this time.

Jashin hugs her tightly, being careful to not touch her face, "Come on, get up… I can heal up your face and then you can take a shower and everything will be okay."

Jashin helps her up and Emma keeps her head down. "Why don't you sit down on Ben's bed? I'll heal you now."

Emma sits down slowly on Ben's bed and hesitantly looks up at Jashin. Jashin sees the blood and tears running down her face and staining her clothes. He sees her swollen eye and broken nose. He sees her split lip and bruised cheeks; he barely succeeds in hiding his anger. Jashin controls his breathing carefully as he gently moves his hand over her face, leaving behind not a single bruise or cut. Emma's breathing sounds labored from the pain of the healing, but she doesn't let out a single sob. "Did he hurt you anywhere else?"

"My wrist, I think it's broken…"

Jashin takes her sprained wrist in his hands and moves everything back into its proper place before healing it. This time Emma can't hold back everything.

Jashin sighs, "Come on, I'll show you where the shower is." He leads her to his room, being careful to make it so she can't see any of the instruments of torture, and then to the side room where the shower is. She mumbles a thank-you as he shuts the door leaving her alone in the bathroom and him alone in his room. He looks down at the blood on his hands and tries to understand all of these emotions coursing through him. He had raped and beaten and tortured many, many girls, but he never felt these emotions before… so why did he feel it now for this _one_ girl?

He trudges over to his bed and sits down, watching the door and listening incase she needed help. He hears the water turn on and fumbles with his fingers for all the time it takes her to clean off the filth of three days in Hell.

He couldn't fully grasp what was happening in his heart… He knew the feeling of wanting a girl, and he knew he wanted Emma, but the two just weren't the same. Could he keep her safe down in Hell? He wants to keep her with him, but… but what? He had never heard of a human being safe in Hell. He knew the demons in his kingdom wouldn't care… they'd probably just think that Jashin is keeping her as a servant. But if they actually came here they'd find that she has her own room with a bed and everything… they'd find that she was in good health and wasn't afraid or broken. What would he do if someone from outside his kingdom came? …well, no one had actually come INSIDE his home for several hundred years… His father had not come into the kingdom since he gave it to Jashin… so Jashin _should_ be fine; Emma _should_ be fine. …No! She is a human; a pathetic, worthless, weak human that is only here to be tortured and used. He looks up at the bathroom door again. She trusted him… she might even love him… and Jashin- NO! No. No. No. He had to make her give in. She trusted him, now all he had to do was get her to do what was needed…

He notices that the sound of running water has stopped and looks up to see Emma holding a towel up to cover herself as she stands in the doorway to the bathroom.

Jashin's brain freezes for a moment, but a few seconds' later words finally find their way out, "Do you need some fresh clothes or something?"

Emma stands there for another moment, seeming… uncertain at the least. Then she walks over to Jashin and lets go of the towel to wrap her arms around him as she kisses him, but the towel remains between them.

Jashin's eyes widen, but he quickly relaxes and put his hands on her bare back and presses her against him as he kisses her in return. She kisses him harder and squeezes him tighter and he can feel her body becoming tense with excitement.

Jashin suddenly realizes that this is it; this is what he's been waiting for. She trusts him completely. If she lets him do this, she'll be giving in to him and he'll be able to hurt her and allow others to hurt her too.

But he doesn't want that anymore…

His grip on her loosens and he stops kissing her. Emma tries to kiss him again but Jashin pushes her back. Emma takes the towel and slowly stands looking at Jashin. When he doesn't say anything she wraps the towel around herself and quickly leaves with tears in her eyes.

Jashin sits unmoving, once again frozen, mind completely blank.

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	8. Chapter 8

The shortest chapter! :O

Chapter Eight

How could she be so stupid? She felt like such a whore. He was a good guy, and there she had been seducing him after only a few days of knowing him. She did have strong feelings for him, but obviously he didn't feel the same way about her. She hates herself; she is a disgusting little slut. She now wishes that he DID want to hurt her, because she did deserve pain. She did deserve Hell.

preferring physical pain over emotional pain.

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	9. Chapter 9

Here it is: the last chapter…

WARNING: disturbing intentions

Chapter Nine

Jashin had barely gotten any sleep from worrying about Emma, but he knew that she was in a very delicate state and didn't want to upset her further. Hopefully now she will be okay again…

Jashin walks out into the Dining Room, but she isn't there. He next checks the Servant room, and then her room, saving it for last. She isn't anywhere inside. Had she committed suicide? The forest; she had to be at the forest. Jashin appears in the Forest in seconds, and looks around desperately. Where is she? He doesn't have enough patience to search so he does a summoning spell, but nothing happens. He sits down and focuses on her, searching his entire kingdom for her; but again, nothing. SHIT! _Shitshitshitshitshit_! He can't even be sure if she committed suicide because at least then her body would be somewhere, but no; there is nothing!

Jashin stands there shaking with all of the painful emotions inside of him. And when a tear comes out he loses it. He cries out in rage and agony and punches a giant hole in the nearest tree, causing it to fall over, hitting many other trees on the way. He rips a crystal off of the tree and stabs himself with it repeatedly, screaming a curse with every blow. When he finally stops beating himself with the crystal, he is on the ground; legs completely broken and splattered; arms fractured and bleeding heavily, torso a complete mess. Jashin continues to scream in agony as his fingernails are replaced with black talons and teeth become pointed like shark's teeth. His eyes become pitch black and he uses his new talons to claw at and rip apart his face as he continues to scream and yell and cry. Lips completely gone, eyes on the ground, all teeth visible and with only half a head of hair; Jashin bites deeply into his hands, biting them to pieces.

He doesn't want to be here anymore. No, no, no… He couldn't live without her… and now, if his father had her… oh God, no… His body slowly heals itself as he buries himself in sorrow. This couldn't be real… this couldn't be happening… please, not Emma…

Maybe… maybe… maybe she is still protected… maybe his father still couldn't touch her! Jashin immediately tries to stand and start running, but he only manages to fall flat on his face. _Goddammit. _He waited the few minutes necessary for him to be able to run full-on, and the sprints through the forest and out the door and towards his father's palace, even though he isn't completely healed yet. With the power of being a demonic god, Jashin reaches the doors to his father's palace in minutes. He swings them open and quickly comes in, doing a quick scan of the room before running to the Throne Room.

As he shoves open the doors to the Throne Room he prepares to demand his father of where Emma is, but when he sees inside, all words are lost.

Emma is naked and covered in deep cuts and ghastly bruises, bowed before Satan's throne. Satan is kneeled down and whispers into her ear, all the time watching Jashin with laughing eyes.

Jashin attempts to speak, but nothing comes out.

Satan grabs Emma's hair and forces her to stand and face Jashin, her eyes… her eyes have been scratched out and her mouth is sewn shut. But Jashin can tell that she knows he's there because she attempts to cover herself with her hands which have many broken fingers, but when she tries to cover herself Satan takes her by the wrists and shoves her to the ground and then shoots Jashin one quick grin before dragging her to the wall by her hair.

Jashin stumbles in one step…

As he whispers something into her ear she shakes her head "no" with tears pouring down her face from her empty eye sockets. He spreads her legs and she tries to struggle but he is as strong, no, stronger than Jashin. She whimpers quietly in fear of what is to come; she doesn't want Jashin to have to see this…

Finally, Jashin snaps out of it and charges as his father with a fierce battle cry. Before he is even within two yards of him, Satan makes a gesture at Jashin which sends him flying across the room and hitting the opposite wall with a sickening _CRACK_.

Jashin doesn't bother worrying about the lack of air in his lungs and instead goes right back to charging at Satan. This time Satan lets Jashin come and grabs him by the neck and hits him hard against the wall. Jashin claws at his father's tight grip like a savage animal and he kicks out with fury, desperately trying to hurt Satan.

Satan's grin goes from evil to absolutely wickedly perverted as he turns Jashin so that he's facing the wall. Jashin is enraged. His hands are against the wall and he tried hard to push it away from him, but he just isn't strong enough… He looks down at Emma who Jashin can tell that Satan had raped her before Jashin even got here. Satan leans up against Jashin and murmurs into his ear, "Getting attached to a human, hm? Trying to save her from the Big Bad Beast?" Satan chuckles. "I raped her, Jashin… She cried so hard, she kept calling out your name, but you never came to save her…"

Jashin is breathing shakily as he says, "h-how?..."

Satan's grin widens, "All I had to do was tell her that I would take back my deal and torture her friends myself if she didn't surrender… She surrendered immediately." Satan runs a finger down Jashin's face which sends a shiver up Jashin's spine. "I fucked the living shit out of her… and now I'm going to do the same to you."

As Jashin screeches in pure hatred he sends out a wave of energy which is just barely strong enough to make his father loosen his grip. Jashin leaps back and quickly looks from Satan to Emma and back again. He couldn't save her. He couldn't even save himself. …but he knew who could.

Jashin runs out of Satan's palace and immediately starts climbing to the surface. No demon had made it to the surface of the human world before, but that's not what Jashin was trying to do. Jashin can't suppress grunts of pain as God's power pushes harder and harder against him. When Jashin is sure that God can hear him, he cries out, "GOD! MY FATHER, SATAN, HE HAS ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN! YOU MUST SAVE HER! SHE DOESN'T BELONG IN HELL! SHE BELONGS WITH YOU! PLEASE! SAVE HER!"

The power of God becomes too strong and Jashin can no longer move, but God brings him back down to Hell as He goes there himself. He dumps Jashin on the floor of Hell and then rushes into Satan's Palace, demons all around are screaming from the pain that God's holy power brings them. There is a bright flash of light, the kind of which Hell has never seen, as God leaves with Emma's soul.

Jashin stands, trembling from the grief of forever losing the one person who ever cared about him. But at least now she is safe…

Jashin hears his father coming out of the palace and so appears back at his home within seconds. He grabs Tom and flees his home, running into Ben on the way. Ben falls back with terror at what Jashin has become and Jashin knows what he did. Ben did it. Ben told Satan about Emma. Jashin's eyes actually burn as he grabs Ben by the collar of his shirt, "_**You… you are coming with me.**_" Jashin shoots up into the dirt which is the roof of Hell, dragging Ben behind him. But this time there is no pressure from God, because this time Jashin isn't going to the human world. No, this time Jashin is going to the Spirit World. He will make his own palace and be the god of his own religion. Ben would be his corpse slave for all eternity for what he did to Emma…

Well, I hope you liked it. If you haven't already read The Dark Road, please read that NOW! The Memory of Light is a prequel to it. Both Ben and Jashin are in it.

You've been a wonderful audience.

Please read and review :)


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